This Semester in a Nutshell

Finally, finals are approaching as well as the promises of several homework-free months. I can’t say I’ve enjoyed every minute of this semester (who ever enjoys every minute of a college semester anyway?), but I can safely say that I’ve learned some things (which may or may not actually be pertinent to real life). For example, I have learned that:

  1. I am really good at making really bad websites.
  2. YouTube is the hero of many peoples’ sanities (including my own).
  3. Blogging is hard when all you’ve done is sit around and write papers.
  4. GIR is the only reason anyone watches Invader Zim.
  5. Mickey Mouse is the best breakdancer on the face of this planet.
  6. Someone felt the irresistible urge to scrawl their first name all over the copy of Twilight that I bought.
  7. I refuse to attach possessive pronouns to the Books-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named (from now on).
  8. Microsoft Word is dumb.
  9. Microsoft Word is really dumb.
10. I am ecstatic that I am no longer an English education major and have resumed my rightful position as a straight English major.

The semester’s end is a welcome occurrence. Although I’m not sure what next semester’s general education requirements will bring, I do know two things: a) there is a nice, long summer injected between this semester’s end and the next’s beginning, and b) whatever next year brings must be better than the past several months.

A Rant about Reading (and an Ode to YouTube)

I know I’ve mentioned this at least once, but I really don’t have time to read. I’ve got about 25 crisp new books, but not a minute to read them. This makes me sad. I would love to dive into Wicked or one of the dozens of new writer’s reference books I picked up last year, but my timeline looks something like this:

10+ hours of classes and homework
Various weekend hours, which are inevitably spent running errands, writing, or wasting an inestimable amount of time on YouTube.

And those seventy-some pages I managed to stuff into my current novel were the product of several weekends not infiltrated by YouTube. But so I don’t bore/annoy you with complaints about why I don’t have time to read, let me express my gratitude to said online labyrinth of videos for becoming a much needed online library. Honestly, I don’t know what I would do without YouTube. I would say about 60 percent of all my ideas came from watching videos of people playing games (and a few random videos here and there). Probably 30 percent comes from movies and the last ten from books. YouTube is my homework helper, and provides me with inspiration at the same time. If you think about it, there are some great old games that have some decent stories out there. I would even hazard that some video games have better stories than some “bestsellers” (Yeah, that’s right, I’m looking at you, Twilight).

Maybe the summertime will provide opportunities to read all those wonderful tomes I’ve collected. For now, I think I’ll stick to the inspirational goldmine that is YouTube. In fact, if you’re struggling to find inspiration yourself, search YouTube for videos of your interests. You never know what you’ll find–or where your next idea will come from.